MY HEALTH AT FIRST

Early Saturday morning, our power went out. It took no time at all for our warm and toasty 70 degree home to become 44 teeth chattering degrees. Outside, it was 9 degrees, as the wind whipped around the house, pushing the inside temperatures further downward. My husband is not only physically fit but a former top gun member of law enforcement. Upon realizing the seriousness of the situation, we both went into survival mode. We smartly got hotel reservations for several nights at a hotel we could hike to within a mile. That's the good news. The bad news is that it lost power shortly thereafter. As fast as you can blink an eye, all of the other hotels were sold out. We were left to fend for ourselves. Close by, there was a condo complex made available to us to get warm, microwave some food, and charge up our countless weapons of mass distraction. But first, you had to navigate a blizzard to get to it. I'm here to tell you that many people remained stuck in their frigid homes because they were not fit enough to hike to warmth. It was a memorable hike but a life-saving one if you wanted to eat, drink water and warm yourself. You needed balance, flexibility, strength and endurance to make the trek. Mental tenacity was required to pull it off.

In survival mode, there's no time for what I call BMW - bitch, moan and whine. Survivors don't complain. They just do what they need to do and get the job done. When we returned to our now frozen home, we entered the door and immediately realized how cold it really was when we spoke and could see our breath. Now it was time to shovel snow before we had mountains of the stuff to contend with. Hours of shoveling, pushing and pulling was grueling but necessary. Those hours of weight lifting paid back in spades. Walking through thigh-high snow drifts was a sweaty, exhausting challenge, but again, those workouts had prepared our bodies for this snowy outdoor boot camp.

Sleeping in front of a fireplace bundled in three layers of clothes, socks and a hat made for quite a nocturnal experience. But, we survived. The question is, could you?

This whole wintery scenario is why I wrote Fit to Live, and why it became the Discovery Health TV series, Could You Survive? I wrote this book and hosted the series to give further meaning and motivation for staying in mental and physical shape throughout your life. I was inspired by the 9/11 and Katrina disasters. How many people lost their lives because they simply did not have the physical fitness to survive? I watched in horror as people, too weak to hold onto a tree's bough, were swept away by the rising waters of the hurricane. Countless men and women died in the towers because they didn't have the strength or endurance to race down 70 flights of stairs or run fast enough out of the buildings to escape the falling debris. Then, I thought about our daily lives. Do you have what it takes to run up a flight of stairs if a fire broke out and you needed to save your life or that of a loved one? If your child or grandchild was running toward traffic and couldn't hear you, would you be able to run fast enough to grab that child and lift him/her up in your arms to safety? Finally, if you were at the airport and were delayed, but absolutely had to make your connecting flight in order to secure your dream job in another city, could you run fast enough hauling your briefcase/purse and roller luggage?

Being Fit to Live is about fitness with a survival twist. I began the book with my favorite quote from Charles Darwin: "It is not the strongest of the species who survives, not the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change." I wrapped the book around teaching people how to adapt and adjust to life's ever changing environment. It is those who can do this who will have the greatest chance of survival and living optimally. Here's how you can become Fit to Live your best life.

You know by now my three pillars of healthy lifestyle habits - MIND: mental, MOUTH: nutritional and MUSCLE: physical fitness. Want to see how you fare? Click into Could You Survive? and test your strength, endurance and nutritional fitness. Here's an example from the Strength Assessment:

The following will test your Fit to Live strength level:

1. From a full standing position, get down flat on the floor. Can you get up again with no help?
a. "Swimming in sweat"
b. "Breaking a sweat"
c. "No sweat!"

2. Count how many times you can stand up from a chair with your arms folded across your chest in 30 seconds. Can do at least 8?
a. "Swimming in sweat"
b. "Breaking a sweat"
c. "No sweat!"

Now try a few challenges from the Endurance Assessment:

1. Without holding onto the railings, can you climb 20 stair steps in 40 seconds?
a. "Swimming in sweat"
b. "Breaking a sweat"
c. "No sweat!"

2. Time yourself in a 1-mile fast-paced walk on a flat surface. Compare your time against the One Mile Walk Chart.
a. Slower than you should be or can't do it at all
b. At age and gender level
c. Above average for age and gender

3. Time yourself in a 1.5-mile run on a flat surface. Compare your time against the appropriate "1.5-Mile Run" chart for women or men.
a. Slower than you should be or can't do it at all
b. At age and gender level
c. Above average for age and gender


After completing the assessments, some of you may see that there's a bit of room for improvement if you want to feel optimally Fit to Live your dreams as well as survive whatever life throws your way. Don't wait to get in shape. You never know when your very life, and the lives of others, may depend upon it.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to get ready for Round Two. That's right, another blizzard is heading toward Washington and it's time to flex my Fit to Live mental and physical muscles once again.